Full Steam Ahead for Colebrookdale Railroad

After years of refurbishing turn-of-the century railroad cars for the Colebrookdale Railroad's Secret Valley Line excursion railroad, it looks like those cars may soon be pulled by a turn-of-the-century steam engine.

The railroad, owned and operated by the non-profit Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust, announced the acquisition of  steam engine 5030.

Engine 5030 is currently in Jackson, MI

Now the Colebrookdale Railroad needs to raise enough funds to transport and refurbish 5030 to a working engine once again.

More details about the fundraising effort will be forthcoming, as well details about how the trust intends to incorporate the engine into its appropriately named "STEAM" program, offered free-of-charge to Pennsylvania school children to teach them about the science, technology, engineering, math and, yes, art of steam power.

In the meantime, those so included can donate on the website by clicking here.

"In many ways, the Colebrookdale was made for steam. Connecting the sites of the iron industries that launched Pennsylvania's rise to industrial supremacy, the Colebrookdale experience is designed to take you to the place and time when iron rails connected a divided people and the heart of the nation pulsed with the potent energy of the steam locomotive," according to its website. 

The Baldwin Motor Works.

"Pennsylvania built more steam locomotives than any other place on the globe, many of them with steel made right here along our line."

The newly acquired engine was built in Pennsylvania's own Baldwin Motor Works, and completed in August of 1912.

Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Delaware County, in the early 20th century. .Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1956 and went out of business in 1972.

The company was contracted by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad to build engine 5030.

The Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company is an American subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway operating in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, according to Wikipedia.

Engine 5030 at work.

Its primary mainline between Chicago and Port Huron, Michigan serves as a connection between railroad interchanges in Chicago and rail lines in eastern Canada and the Northeastern United States. The railroad's extensive trackage in Detroit and across southern Michigan has made it an essential link for the automotive industry as a hauler of parts and automobiles from manufacturing plants.

"Thirty-nine of these relatively small but handsome Class J-3-a Pacifics were delivered to the Grand Trunk Western Railroad over a two-year period," according to information posted on the Colebrookdale site. 

Numbers 100-118 were delivered first, followed by 5030#5048 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works. 

"At least twenty-three, including 5030, were later equipped with new boilers with substantial changes, including a 24 percent reduction in the small tube count from 181 to 139," according to the site. 

The engine was donated to the City of Jackson, MI in 1957 and is on display in North Lawn Park just off Lansing Ave.

"Grand Trunk Western was one of the last U.S. railroads to employ steam locomotives. It ran the last scheduled steam passenger train in the United States on March 27, 1960 on its train 21 from Detroit's Brush Street Station north to Durand Union Station. The run drew thousands of rail enthusiasts. With 3,600 passengers holding tickets train #21 had to be run in two sections (as two separate trains) to accommodate the excess of passengers," according to Wikipedia.

That enthusiasm for authentic steam locomotives remains among railroad hobbyists and experts and one of the elements of the Secret Valley Line which is expected to attract thousands to ride the rails between Pottstown and Boyertown.